Old Trick
by LTP-girl
Summary: Cutter adopts a ruthless tactic once again in persuading a vulnerable witness to testify.
1. Temptation

**Cutter's up to his old calculating tricks again, this time abusing the fractured psych of a young witness in order to get a testimony. **

Disclaimer: I do not own Law & Order and its characters. Bethany Steiner is mine.

Rating: T, for themes and language

Old Trick

By LTP-girl

Prologue

His expression was serious, almost terse, lines forming on his brow. "Murder is wrong. And the right thing to do would be to do everything to ensure that this man is penalised for his wrong doing." His tone was insistent, somewhat sardonically teasing. "You want to do the right thing don't you, Bethany?"

She paused before she spoke, taking in and considering what he had just said to her. "Of course I do," she replied solemnly, as she stared down at the floor.

He stood from his chair behind his desk, and made his way towards the young woman, who was about to make her exit through the door of his office.

"You want people to pay for their wrong doings, don't you?"

"Yes, I suppose so." She felt her heart race for the second time, as the sound of the older man's footsteps got closer and closer.

He approached her stealthily, with an air of armour about him, and cornered her against the bookcase. He ran his elongated finger along her jaw line, steal eyes steadily penetrated into her soft oceanic ones, his gaze harbouring a slight dark coldness. "Bethany, I can see that deep down you are a very strong, compassionate, principled ..." He paused to place a stray lock of hair behind her ear, the scent of his cologne playing at her senses as the cuff of his shirt lightly brushed against her now burning and rosy cheek. "And _beautiful _person." His voice was low and alluring. "I need your testimony to put your mother's murderer in jail."

She steered her eyes away from him shyly, self conscious, aware that his steady glance was delving inside her. "Well, you are very persuasive, Mr Cutter," she replied softly, her voice shaky and slightly elated, her discomfort showing her awkward stance. He was merely inches away from her now, his lips nearly grazing hers.

The advances of an older man, a topic she had discussed immensely in many late-night conversations with her college friends, seemed exciting and wayward, the hint of danger in it all making it all the more enthralling, sexy even. And now that she had been seduced so scathingly by this well established and attractive attorney who was bringing her mother's killer to justice, she found herself panicking, like a deer with its leg was caught in a trap, paralysed, as if her feet had been nailed to the floor, fearful of what would eventuate if she didn't tear out of his office immediately. Yet, she found herself glued to the enigma that seemed to seep from Cutter, its power absolutely unavoidable, her feelings comprised of a field of incongruence.

An amused smile played on his lips. "Well I'm a lawyer Miss Steiner. It's what I do." He cupped her face in his hand, and gently tilted her head upwards, forcing her to gaze back up at him, as he slid his other hand around her waist and firmly rested it on the small of her back.

She felt herself starting to slip. She was so tempted to kiss him...

**What do you think so far? Feel free to review.**


	2. Giving In

**More is revealed about Bethany Steiner's background and Cutter's case.**

Disclaimer: I do not own _Law & Order_ and its characters. Bethany Steiner and Matthew Kendall are mine.

**One Hogan Place, office of EADA Michael Cutter, 10:50pm**

There was a sudden knock at the door, and Cutter pulled himself away from Bethany, startled. He glanced up at the woman standing in the doorway and realised it was Debby, his paralegal.

"Mr Cutter, I'm sorry to interrupt, I understand that you're in a meeting with a witness." She made her way into his office and approached him with her hand outstretched, holding an envelope. "But I have an urgent note from the defence, saying that they've gathered knew evidence."

Cutter cleared his throat in composing himself, praying that she had not seen the advances he was making towards Bethany during the brief moment she had peeped her head around the door. "That's okay, Deb, we were just finishing up anyway." He shifted his glance to Bethany, who was anxiously standing beside him, equally anxious. "Weren't we Bethany?"

She exchanged a wry glance with the distinguished attorney, noticing a hidden wink behind his serious expression. "Yes, that's right," she complied, her tone elated. "I was about to head home."

Debby shot them both a suspicious look, bewildered by their eagerness.

Debby handed Cutter the envelope and he thanked her. "Okay, I just thought I had better give you this before I leave," she said with a smile, before making her way out of his office, and down the hallway. "Night Mr Cutter."

"Night Deb," he replied, calling out to her, his voice slightly elated.

Both he and Bethany sighed with relief.

_God, that was close, _he thought to himself.

Bethany smiled nervously up at him. "I had better go, Mr Cutter," she said, leaving on her heel.

He slid his hands into his pockets and stared down at the floor. "Yes, I think that would be for the best," he replied, making his way towards his desk. He turned to face her and stopped her once again. "And Bethany, it would be in the best interest of my case for you to consider taking the stand," he pleaded. He was surprised by how pathetic he sounded, knowing that she had probably already made her decision and was sticking by it.

She shrugged. "Alright, I'll think about it," she replied, quickly leaving, before anything else happened.

"Thanks..." he drifted, realising that she was halfway out the door before he could finish his sentence. He was a little agitated by her leaving so promptly, but he couldn't blame her. He felt such a sleaze for coming onto her and pulling the dirty old man trick, but with the way she had been behaving so coyly whenever he and Rubirosa met up with her to discuss the case, he couldn't help but sense that she was forming a hint of a crush on him, or at least found him attractive, and he felt it wise to use what he had if it meant convicting a murderer. He used what he had to use. He just hoped that she wouldn't report it to his superiors, or worse still, the _Ledger_.

Bethany made her way hastily down the corridor to the elevator, her heavy boots clomping along the linoleum floor, eager to get away from Michael Cutter after he had so zealously come onto her in the pursuit of so called justice. She prayed to God that he was not following her in another attempt to win her over. She turned around as she walked, and kept her eyes on the door of Cutter's office, making sure that he hadn't been following her. She stopped in front of the elevator doors, pressed the descent button several times in a mad panic, and stood there anxiously as she waited for them to open. She took a moment to take in the surroundings. With all desks in sight left deserted, she suspected that the attorneys who worked on that floor had all gone home, all except Michael Cutter of course.

The events taken place in his office played repeatedly in her mind.

_So close. _She shook her head in frustration. She was so close to being taken advantage of by him, with his zeal and smooth advances. She couldn't help but wonder with dread what could have happened had Cutter's paralegal put off giving him that note until the next day, and just gone home. Having not been interrupted, Cutter would probably have had his way with her, with both of them dripping in a profuse sweat, rolling around with heated passion on his conference table by now.

Her thoughts had been broken by the sharp ding of the elevator, its doors opening. She stepped into the empty vault, and pressed the ground level button.

The internal problem Bethany found herself wrestling with was that a part of her wanted it to happen. When Cutter had approached her so debauchedly, she was able to stand aside, lose herself, and forget the chaos that had been swallowing her the past few days.

She stepped out of the doors of the elevator once it had stopped on the ground floor, and made her way towards the curb where she hailed a cab. Once she had reflected back on Cutter, it was very difficult for her to stop. God, he was gorgeous. His slender torso, his steal-blue eyes, his scent, his voice, the feeling she was left with when he had touched her. Her heart turned to melted butter at the mere thought of him.

_Stop it, stop it, _she silently cursed herself, forcing herself to steer her mind away from thoughts of him, knowing very well that his persuasion had already taken hold a hold on her. The problem was that when she tried to focus on something else, her thoughts would immediately avert to the events of her mother's death. Her mind had become filled with images of her mother's eviscerated body sprawled onto the floor of the sitting room of the family home, her eyes glassy and cold, echoing the haunting of death, her blood seeping into the carpet. What further broke Bethany's heart was the sadness that had loomed over her family the past week. Her father slumping into the couch with his head in his hands as police officers broke the news. The way her sister, Rachel, kept rambling '_why, why, why?' _through gasping tears. Bethany knew why. She knew why her mother had come to such a tragic fate. Her mother had been having an adulterous affair with a man she worked with, Matthew Kendall, a twenty-four-year-old file clerk, and the only reason Bethany knew about this affair was because she had confronted her mother about elusive emails she had stumbled across sent by him, leaving her mother no choice but to trust and confide in her. Her mother, at the end of her tether, later informed Bethany that Kendall had become so possessive of her that he threatened to kill her if she did not leave her family, forcing her to end the relationship. Bethany assumed that he had become so angry, not able to bear her being with another man, even her husband, and killed her in cold blood. And Bethany knew that the images that had taken possession of her mind would only go away if she brought this man to justice by testifying in court, and revealed what she knew of the affair, bringing the offender's motive into the case. But, the thought of her father and her sister's heartbreak in acknowledging their wife and mother's infidelity would only crumble them further. This notion turned her right off the idea. Yet, Michael Cutter was so alluring, and his voice haunted her no end.

_You want to do the right thing, don't you Bethany? _

Next thing, she found herself wandering up Centre Street, and back towards the District Attorney's Office. She had given in.

Cutter continued to read through the case-file, frustrated by the new findings the defences was planning to use to abolish his case. The defence had found evidence that suggested that the slashes found all over the victim, Esther Steiner, were carried out by someone who was left-handed, and that the murder could not have possibly been committed by the defendant, Matthew Kendall, with such precision as he was _right-handed_.

Cutter rubbed his tired eyes, which were also sore from him working in the dim light of his office. He was in the soup now, without a witness testimony, and the only witness he had was Steiner's daughter, who wasn't talking.

He slumped in his chair, and glanced up at his office door as it opened with a creek, surprised to find Bethany Steiner standing in the doorway.

"Bethany..." His expression was slightly questioning.

She entered his office. "Mr Cutter, I-I... I need to give you something." She felt her voice catch in her throat.

His expression turned puzzled. "Um, alright." He dropped the pen he had been using onto his desk, and leaned back in his chair with intrigue. His steal-blue eyes glistened like liquid silver as Bethany made her way towards his desk. "And what is it that you wanted to give me...?"

Before he could finish asking her, Bethany had swung both her legs over each side of his chair and straddled him, as if to get on a horse, and forced her weight onto him, causing the chair to slightly tilt backward.

"Oh."

She slid her fingers through soft locks of his greying hair, her lips etching closer towards him, as she planted a wet and hungry kiss on his. She pulled away from him for a moment, her green eyes blazing in anticipation.

A mischievous smile played on his lip-gloss smeared lips as Bethany's wandering hand began to pull at his belt buckle, caressing her milky cheek, his slightly callused middle-aged hand further evoking the underlying thirst within her.

Her voice turned dark. "And Mr Cutter, that's a yes, by the way. I _will_ testify."

**What do you think? Feel free to review:-)**


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